Tour de Ski

Cross-country skiing: Vermeulen fifth in pursuit

Mika Vermeulen(Bild: GEPA)

Cross-country skier Mika Vermeulen finished fifth in the 15 km pursuit at the Tour de Ski on New Year's Day in Dobbiaco!

The 25-year-old, who started from 10th position after the 20 km skating competition, was only 9.5 seconds behind the Norwegian and Tuesday's winner Harald Östberg Amundsen. Sweden's Edvin Anger finished second (+2.5 seconds) and Johannes Hösflot Kläbo third (+5.3 seconds), thus remaining ahead in the overall standings. Teresa Stadlober finished eleventh in the women's race.

Vermeulen: "A brutally tough race!"
Vermeulen improved to a strong fourth place in the overall standings. "I achieved my best classic result so far today with this fifth place, but it was a brutally tough race. I didn't really feel fresh in the morning and was almost worried," reported Vermeulen. However, he started the race well and worked really well with a strong group. "I briefly thought that even the podium might still be possible."

However, the joy of 5th and 4th place overall prevailed for the ambitious Vermeulen, who is now looking forward to the second stage in Val di Fiemme. The 25-year-old Styrian is 1:23 minutes behind overall leader Kläbo.

Stadlober: "Making amends for yesterday!"
In the women's race, the two 36-year-old Norwegians Astrid Oeyre Slind and Therese Johaug fought a duel for victory, with the former winning the sprint by 0.2 seconds. Stadlober, who started the race in 15th place on New Year's Eve, worked her way up a little over the course of the race, but missed out on the top ten by 0.9 seconds in eleventh place. Slind leads the overall standings by six seconds ahead of Johaug, while Stadlober improved from 14th place to ninth and back into the top ten.

"Today was compensation for yesterday. I finished eleventh with the fourth-fastest time and it was a really strong race from me," said a satisfied Stadlober. "We had incredibly good material and I just let out all the anger from yesterday," she said. Now she is particularly looking forward to the skiathlon in Val di Fiemme.